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It is supposed to come standard with the RC64 remote, but you can purchase the RC64RB remote for it and it will work out of the box (that is, you don't need to also purchase an external RF antennae--you do need to program it).

It does not come with an RF remote. But it does have the internal antenna so my R64RB works great with it without an external antenna.

Other users had some key press issues with a different RF remote. The 64Rb seemed to work best.

"But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for, is their monument today, and for aye." "This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

Locals on the 72.5 will be shufflled to MPEG4 eventually and they will need a solution for receiving them. That's all this is about at this point.

Wrong.... That’s not at all what this receiver is about, and the lack of a RF output didn't make my theory go anywhere because it's not a theory, it's a fact, clearly spelled out in DirecTV's publicly announced hardware plans. As for the extremely small percentage of people who might still need RF output as it continues to disappear from all the new DirecTV receivers and DVRs, an external RF modulator is less than a $5 part which DirecTV can provide to anyone with a 20 year old TV who needs it.

The video decoder is the same, and that's all that really matters. The CPU is probably the same as well. It's fairly obvious that DirecTV intends for this unit to be upgradeable in the future, even if they don't have plans for it now.

You can be sure that there are plans to do such upgrades in the future… just not publicly announced plans... probably because they want to conceal the fact that the R22 is essentially the hardware equivalent of the HR21, but they want to have a lease price of $100 for one and $200 for the other, even though they are both the same thing.

Thats cool. Will it support IR AND RF at the same time? I hate that my R15 won't do both at the same time.

You can trick the R15 into doing this. Set it to IR and do a reset. After the reset do not go into the remote menu. Simply program the rf remote properly with the last 6 digits o the RID and it should work.

Once you change an R15 from IR to RF (or back again) it only works in the single mode. But it works both ways until you make the first change to rf.

Actually, since even earlier than that, hence my comment that I'm sure that DirecTV would probably be willing to supply an RF modulator free of charge to the small number of their subscribers who have 20 year old TVs with no composite input. I have an old el-cheapo no-name 12” TV that sold for about $60 new years ago, and even it has a composite input.

I don't remember seeing the Smithsonian on Demand channel when I cycled through all the DoD channels. I can check it again tomorrow though.

- Merg

I'll take this one Merg.Yes you can see Smithsonian on Demand with the R22,but if you don't subcribe to that channel you can't download anything.A warning comes up telling me I don't have that channel in my package and I have the Premier package.

I'll take this one Merg.Yes you can see Smithsonian on Demand with the R22,but if you don't subcribe to that channel you can't download anything.A warning comes up telling me I don't have that channel in my package and I have the Premier package.

That would be similar to the fact that I can see Starz on Demand and Showtime Demand as channels and view their libraries, but I can't download any content from them since I don't subscribe to them. One thing I had hoped was that if you do not subscribe to a channel, there would be a way to not show their on Demand equivalents, but that is not possible.

You can trick the R15 into doing this. Set it to IR and do a reset. After the reset do not go into the remote menu. Simply program the rf remote properly with the last 6 digits o the RID and it should work.

Once you change an R15 from IR to RF (or back again) it only works in the single mode. But it works both ways until you make the first change to rf.

Without having to search through 5 pages of this thread, although the unit cannot output HD, can it receive the HD channels, and display them, down rezzed of course? (Eventually allowing DirecTV to drop the SD versions of channels, without alienating SD only customers,...while creating more bandwidth for HD?) Or, are the SD channels eventually going to be converted to mpeg4, also making room for more HD, just not as much room?

Without having to search through 5 pages of this thread, although the unit cannot output HD, can it receive the HD channels, and display them, down rezzed of course? (Eventually allowing DirecTV to drop the SD versions of channels, without alienating SD only customers,...while creating more bandwidth for HD?) Or, are the SD channels eventually going to be converted to mpeg4, also making room for more HD, just not as much room?

Some day maybe, remember there alot of R15's, D10, 11s and 12s out there but since the SD channels are on MPEG2 satellites I fail to see how that would free up bandwith for HD.... Better resolution on SD channels or more, different SD channels would be possible.

I've gone ahead and e-mailed Stuart a revised First Look with a correction about the resolutions of the R22. As pointed out, there was an error by omission. The new text reads as follows:

The resolution button is not used on the receiver. The resolution LEDs show possible resolutions of 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i. While being used, the receiver always listed its output as being 480p, although via S-video, component, and composite connections, it did display on TV’s that required 480i input. The component and HDMI connections worked fine on TV’s requiring an input of 480p.

You can be sure that there are plans to do such upgrades in the future… just not publicly announced plans... probably because they want to conceal the fact that the R22 is essentially the hardware equivalent of the HR21, but they want to have a lease price of $100 for one and $200 for the other, even though they are both the same thing.

Well, the R22 invites hackers to convert it into a HR21, doesn't it?

The first main purpose of this DVR is to obsolete the R15 ASAP. That would bring all of the DVRs under D*'s direct control.

I think another long-term goal of the box is to allow D* to stop sending MPEG2 SD locals. They'll use this box, which will receive MPEG4 HD locals and output them as SD. This box can also receive MPEG4 SD locals, but why would D* send those if they're already sending MPEG4 HD locals? This transition will eventually free up quite a bit of bandwidth. But they are in no rush.

The first channels to go would be the 72.5 locals. It's a pain (and not as profitable) to install TWO dishes at these sites. Though when I started a thread on this topic two months ago, no one could agree on what the plans were or if there were any plans.

Supposition here. Small DMAs get these boxes and their local channels are only sent in HD and for the SD subs these boxes transparently output them as SD and HD subs with HD Boxes get them as HD. Thus eliminating duplicate feeds for DMAs in SD & HD. And as time goes on and more of these are out there they do a gradual swap of MPEG2 boxes in larger and larger DMAs until they can turn off mpeg2.

Some day maybe, remember there alot of R15's, D10, 11s and 12s out there but since the SD channels are on MPEG2 satellites I fail to see how that would free up bandwith for HD.... Better resolution on SD channels or more, different SD channels would be possible.

Are the current sats unable to pass along mpeg4? Having an SD receiver that gets mpeg4 would eventually allow to, either eliminate the duplicate sd channels and send down rezzed versions of the HD channels to SD subscribers, opening up bandwidth. Or, converting the mpeg2 channels to mpeg4, a much more efficient compression scheme, thus opening up more bandwidth more HD. Either way there is more would be more bandwidth available. Yes I know any of these changes would be years off, but I was wonder what is DirecTV's plan for having the new SD receivers to get mpeg4 broadcasts. I don't think they are adding that functionality just for the fun of it.